Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 41 Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, led the four-car Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) contingent Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway by finishing fourth in the Folds of Honor 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Busch started from the pole position and led three times for 62 laps en route to his sixth top-five in 25 career Sprint Cup starts at Atlanta. It was also his 117th top-five in 542 career Sprint Cup starts.
Photo Credit: stewarthaasracing.com
“It was hard driving with the lower downforce,” Busch said. “We had a really good car short-run speed; we just didn’t have it on the long-run speed. That is sometimes what happens to a polesitting racecar. You are feeling confident like ‘hey, all right,’ but we were just too aggressive on the tires. No biggie. It exemplified itself because we were great on short-run speeds in overtime. We gained from eighth to fourth. So, a long day, but I’m really happy with the Monster Energy/Haas Automation Chevy, the effort, the guys, everybody. We had a couple of pit stop issues. I think we might have had a clutch dragging, and it was actually rotating the left-rear tire, so the pit stops were slow because I had the car in gear. I have to fix that. All in all, real happy with the guys.”
Busch led the first 39 laps from the pole. After being passed by Matt Kenseth, Busch brought his No. 41 Chevrolet to pit road for scheduled service of four tires and fuel. Busch was able to retake the point on lap 43 and would show the way for another 22 laps.
Busch began to struggle with a loose-handling racecar on corner exit. Crew chief Tony Gibson ordered adjustments on every pit stop, ranging from air pressure to wedge and a combination of both, but was unable to dial the handling to Busch’s liking.
Despite the uncomfortable handling of the racecar, Busch was able to maintain position inside the top-five for much of the race. He began to fade near the end of the race and was scored as the last car on the lead lap, in eighth place, as the finish drew near.
When the final caution flag of the day waved at lap 323, Busch and Gibson agreed to follow the leaders to pit road to make one last round of adjustments. Busch pitted for pressure-adjusted tires and returned to the track in eighth place. The No. 41 Chevrolet crossed the finish line in the fourth position after a multicar incident forced the race to end under caution.
“We had a pole-sitting car, and sometimes that is tough,” Busch said. “You want to leave the setup alone. Today it just seemed to chew up the tires a bit too aggressively. We ran good early on in the race, and then when the track rubbered in I just lost both ends of the car. But we were able to maintain. We were hanging in there running eighth – in the top group, so to speak, because we were on the lead lap. We had short-run speed, but that doesn’t work here at Atlanta when you are running 500 miles on long runs. Thanks to Monster Energy, Haas Automation, Chevrolet and everybody that works on this team. Really good group of guys, we just need to fine tune some small things.”
There were three caution periods for 13 laps during the 325-lap race, which went into overtime and was extended by five laps to 330.
With round two of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship point standings. He is third with 74 points, four behind first-place Kyle Busch. Kurt Busch is seventh with 69 points, nine out of first. Patrick is 29th with 27 points, 51 out of first. Dillon is ineligible for driver points in this series.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Kobalt 400 on Sunday, March 6, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race starts at 3:30 p.m. EST with live coverage provided by FOX beginning with its prerace show at 3 p.m.
